Thursday, February 28, 2013

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One use that neighbors had for Everyblock Rogers Park was to post pictures of graffiti. This is a picture of the brick wall on Seeley just south of Howard. Dee was right, this or many other pictures of graffiti very well could've been the "last" picture of Everyblock. It is random finding what has or hasn't survived the big shutdown. Now neighbors are asked to send pictures to the alderman's office. If memory serves this blogger right this was posted in November 2012. What follows is a tweet from our alderman, "JoeMoore49 If you see graffiti, take a photo and send to graffiti@caps24.org, then call Ald office to have it removed #CAPS24". It is especially important to have large pieces like this on bare brick removed immediately. This particular example of graffiti was removed within days after being posted.

The original post that was to be published this morning vanished into thin air (the hazards of modern writing). This blogger should've been tipped off that this post was acting wonky because when saving it, the post stayed stuck farther down on the list instead of jumping to the top.

Walking down this alley off of Sherwin and happening upon this private alley feels like something out of H.P. Lovecraft. It is a very strange old weird forgotten section of the city. This alley is behind the doomed Shambhala. You can see the lake at the end of the alley, and the three flat brick building looks tiny next to the giant neighbor.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Community organizer Kyle Hillman is headed to Springfield our state capitol via train as the unofficial representative for the village of Rogers Park. He is going there for the National Association of Social Workers meeting. Hopefully he snaps some great photos. He tweeted that there will be over eight hundred attendees. This news was posted on the defacto bulletin board of Rogers Park.

As reported in DNAinfo.com Speedy Northside Delivery is the fastest most reliable way to get local food delivered right to your door. These brave bike riders will deliver no matter the temperature, weather or even if you have a broken buzzer. The main places they delivery for are Grillin and Morse Gyros. As mentioned in the ad above the delivery boundaries are from Granville to Juneway Terrace and Lake Michigan to Western Ave. Here is the link to the Facebook page.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Usually if a site shuts down you still have a few ghost images that are still up on the net. This however is the only one that made it through. This is the only image that survived when all the data was destroyed. Click here for the results of google image search Everyblock Rogers Park. And click here to see the photo and how its linked up still with Everyblock. An appropriate last photo as well, bleak and stark. The dying last ember of Rogers Park Everyblock. Was this Dee's icon or did she post this picture?

The rumours are true. We are finally getting blue recycling trash bins in Rogers Park. These shots were taken this morning. This writer received his blue bin yesterday. A streets and sans truck double parked near the intersection of Paulina and Chase so that the bins could be delivered. The supervisor with the paperwork didn't want his photo taken (you can see him off in the distance) but this nice lady assented. The supervisor asked me what was up when the photographer was taking photos perhaps not knowing the historic import of this day. After explaining why the photographs were being taken he inquired as to where this writer lived and was happy that the blue bin had already been delivered. The workers were putting the wheels together on the bins, writing the addresses on the top and placing the plastic bags with info on to the bins. On the other side of the street the blue bins were stacked four high.

Monday, February 25, 2013

RogersParker brings up a good point with the Onion tweet. (Above right screenshot of DNAinfo.com Twitterfeed 7am this morning) What are the point of tweets? What is appropriate or inappropriate? The most useful tweets bring you news you can use. The Onion's mission statement is satire. It is extremely incisive at that. That satire will be all the more shocking in the limited character count of tweets. What the Onion was most guilty of with this tweet was it just wasn't that funny. People sometimes take the Onion seriously when they shouldn't. Did they actually mean what they said?

Graffiti never stops. It does slow down in winter, but graffiti does accumulate in part because the taggers continue their work even in the coldest months of the year. This is a city of Chicago stop sign circa 1994. It is nonreflective and a good solid metal sign. The newer reflective stop signs were manufactured without taking into account that they will be tagged (the red paint comes off with goof off). This is the Sherwin L viaduct just steps from the alderman's office. You can see that the city has covered graffiti in a patchwork fashion (white over yellow) and this only invites more tagging. Goof off was sprayed onto the sign and then the graffiti simply wiped off with a rag, this took a grand total of one minute. Equal or less to how long it took to put up the graffiti. Four of the other signs were tagged and also there was tagging on a concrete pillar. Caterpillar yellow spray paint is a perfect match for the yellow. Available at most Ace Hardware stores. The photo was taken 2-24-13.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

The effect of the real estate craze in the mid to late aughts is still being felt today in Rogers Park. Yo Chicago revisits a courtyard building which was condo converted back in 2008 when the bubble popped. This building at 7401-7411 N Hoyne. (Hoyne Manor now known as Golden Court Condos) is one example of the shadow inventory in Rogers Park.

Most of these buildings will probably revert to rental after being bought at bulk cut rate prices, rehabbed if needed and the money made back on renting the improved rental property. Some of these condo conversions were hack jobs, but this courtyard building appears from the outside to be well done. However there may be hidden corners that were cut, neglect due to the banks being the landlords and possible squatters living in buildings causing further damage.

This sign appeared within the last week announcing that the Birchmont is now ready to be leased. During the past year a lot of properties near or at Fargo and Greenview have been fixed up, including 7450 N Greenview across the street. This apartment building is walking distance to Lake Michigan, the Jarvis L stop, Charmers Cafe, Poitin Stil bar, the Emil Bach house and Howard street. What more could you ask for? One dead link mentions that the Birchmont used to be a hotel. And this link here wonders if Hollywood stars used to stay there. Looking at Zillow there are three bedrooms there for 1400.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Former world's tallest visible from the city limits of Chicago. Rogers Park is as far north as you can go in the city of Chicago but you can still find the Sears Tower peeking in between buildings along Clark street. There is a point around Estes where you can see Evanston and Chicago at the same time (Sears Tower and the 415 Howard highrise) and of course the same can be said of standing at Howard and Clark. Notice the new streetlights in the foreground and the old fashioned streetlights further down the street. The original photo is just beyond the jumpbreak.

Chevanston took down the DNAinfo.com Twitter Feed link for now because Gerald Farinas continues to broadcast his personal information there. This is really too bad that Gerald insists on doing this because the Twitter Feed at DNAinfo.com is a great place to get information. It is selfish and inappropriate. Its similar to someone getting on the CB radio that truckers use to talk with each other and jamming up the lines with nonsense. Keeping the line clear is important so that the community can get news updates and stay alert for breaking news. Having a major news site carry your tweets is an honor and should be respected and not abused as it continues to be in this special case.

Rather than discuss the specific infraction here please continue reading.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Evanston Now published a report today regarding a possible brew pub at 623-627 w. Howard. The bar would be called the Peckish One. The potential proprietors run the Celtic Knot downtown. According to Evanston Now the interested parties will be meeting soon at the other city subsidized bar Ward 8 to discuss possible terms. If all goes well it could open as early as December first. For the full details please vist Evanston Now.

Net neighbors have been complaining that Ward Eight (the new wine bar in Evanston on Howard) is hard to spot. A new sign has been added to increase visibility. Ward Eight has been nominated by Time Out as a contestant in their best bar contest. Stop by and scan the doohickey on the door with your phone to vote for them. Check out their Facebook page here, (there is an art opening coming up Feb 28th).

The brick facade is complete on the front and east side of the building and is starting to go up on the west side. The first floor commercial space is still open to the elements and workers yesterday braved the cold working on it. Anything but meh. If you want more information regarding floor plans and possible showings click here.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

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There is an important role for anonymous comments. People are more apt to share their real opinions when not attached to their true face. They are also more apt to write extremely foolish comments. The point of this blog isn't to offend, fight, slight or piss off. It is here to question society when its needed, point out problems when no one else will and highlight the best of Rogers Park (and south Evanston) so there is a balanced view. And sometimes when you question the status quo you will offend. But sometimes the status quo needs to be questioned. We will allow people who post under their real name to comment here as well.

2/20/13 6am Update - The Broken Heart of Rogers Park after proclaiming a ban on anonymous commenters is now only open to invited readers.

Has this place sold? It looks more lonely and desolate than usual and the previous listing for this can't be found. http://chicagoarealistings.com/listing/IL/Chicago/1930-W-Chase-Ave/08174337 is now a dead link. Bill Morton gave it one star back in 2007 on Yelp and it hasn't done anything to earn more than that in the intervening time. The parking lot has caved in @ places and those two derelict cars have sat there for some time.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Nice rehab job of this failed condo conversion in the past year. Not the easiest building to photograph because of its location. The new metal address'es look sharp and so do the clear awnings. The glass brick always detracts but overall this building has never looked better. But looking at the Google maps picture the green awning at the corner was pretty slick. Overall somethings are better and somethings are worse just like life.

Hasn't opened yet, but this new mart and hot dog shop is taking shape at the Howard L stop.

Photo taken this morning by one of Chevanston's freelance photographers. The above picture is the entrance inside the L station. The news that this store was opening was broken by Joe Germuska in December on the previous net neighbor site Everyblock. Click here to refer back to Chevanston's coverage.

Rogers Park is definitely not a boring place. You never know what you will find in this neighborhood of ours. Like take this custom made Rat King Postal Service sticker found on the one way sign at Arthur and Glenwood. Not quite one of a kind, but definitely an uncommon way to mail packages.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Gerald Farinas did post a nice link to theEvanston Sunrise Facebook page on 2/17/13 on his Twitter page which made it onto the DNAinfo.com Twitter Feed. Give credit where credit is due. The problem with Twitter is a lot of tweets don't look like anything, like the one we are discussing which is quoted below. This tweet is 134 characters, just shy of the maximum 140.

The fact that this building was for sale was posted onto the all encompassing Everyblock before its demise in early February. Here is trulia's listing.It's listed for 1.5 million and is a mixed used three story building. Seventeen units, three stores, three one bedrooms, two small and nine large studios. The odd thing regarding this building is that the showers directly look out onto the busy street. This situation should be rectified. You can see where the showers are, the two glass brick windows on the upper left.

There is a badly faded campaign advertisement on the side of the building from the 1976 gubernatorial election. Michael Howlett was elected Secretary of State in 1972 for Illinois. In the 1976 election he lost to Jim Thompson of the Republican Party. The largest margin for defeat recorded for a Democrat in Illinois running for governor. Ishmael Flory from the Communist Part only received 10,000 votes but more votes than F. Joseph McCaffrey of the Libertarian party. This information was obtained by reading Wikipedia.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Local celebrity Gerald Farinas announced that his father has left the hospital today. He has been keeping Rogers Park updated throughout the weekend concerning his condition. We are very glad that he is doing well. DNAinfo.com is the local news leader concerning all things Gerald Farinas. Gerald also took a picture of the hot wings he ate at a local restaurant in Evanston proclaiming "that s*@# is spicy!" Gerald also kept Rogers Park informed as to what he was watching on television (Kesha on NBA Allstars). What will happen next in Gerald Farina's life? Well stay tuned to the Twitter Feed at DNAinfo.com Rogers Park to find out.

Its about time DNAinfo.com picked up Gerald's tweets, which are as important if not more than official announcements from the alderman's office and local congressman's office. The advent of Twitter has filled the void of a world devoid of all things Gerald Farinas. He may even post where he eats dinner next, perhaps giving people a chance to catch a sight of our most famous citizen.

This is reminiscent of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry won't let someone in the building and then he keeps running into to him all the time later on because he actually lives there. Those ceiling tiles in the lobby of the Astor House are stained and sad. This place would really shine if it got the royal treatment like the Farcroft. Reading the bedbug registry for this building you will see that there are problems.

The number of likes, followers, thanks or pageviews a site or person gains doesn't mean that this person or site is especially important or newsworthy it just means its popular. This is especially true with Twitter. This new form of dispersing information is best for small bites of information or giving people links to articles to check out. At its worst people divulge unwanted personal information. When a loved one is sick or when you are going on vacation isn't just off topic it is inappropriate for public consumption. If someone's primary contribution to the internet are tweets through a Twitter account it isn't substantial or important.

Only in Rogers Park would someone be looking for a dove named Siddhartha or Sid. This looks like something out of Portlandia. There was actually a funny little bit on Portlandia of someone posting a music festival notice and then someone putting a lost kitty notice on top and then it escalated until the music festival guy chained the kitty guy to the pole and then a silly kitty puppet was barely able to repost their flyer.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Well now we know that Gerald Farinas' father is out of scanning and he is continuing to bleed. We hope for a speedy recovery but this blogger does not go to DNAinfo.com Rogers Park's Twitter Feed to catch up with local "celebrity" Gerald Farinas and all the minutiae of his life. Ok its official no one is watching the DNAinfo.com Twitter Feed. We already learned yesterday that his father had internal bleeding as seen in the previous screenshot posted late last night. DNAinfo.com Twitter Feed is not the appropriate place to broadcast personal information, isn't that why there is Facebook?. Why is DNAinfo.com allowing this to occur? Retweeting national news does not make someone an important figure or a journalist and even it if did we don't want to know your personal information.

Update #1 Gerald Farinas response 2/16/13 1pm.- Gerald Farinas ‏@GeraldFarinas"Apparently someone thinks I tweet for #DNAinfo? LMAO!! " But Gerald Farinas knows that DNAinfo.com carries his tweets. So effectively he is tweeting for DNAinfo.com. Why the broadcasting of personal information? Its inappropriate. Joe Moore doesn't broadcast for DNAinfo.com either, but he knows his tweets make it onto the site as well. So its all arbitrary how you explain it, and its still wrong especially if you know your tweets are making it onto a site where public news is gathered to put that information on there. You should use that opportunity to speak about important issues and not your personal life. And more importantly if DNAinfo.com knows that Gerald Farinas is posting about non important personal information then why are they carrying his tweets?

Update #2 Gerald Farinas 2/16/13 3pm.
Gerald plays coy that DNAinfo.com broadcasts his tweets. He is minority owner of Chicago Phoenix and a media strategist, if he is ignorant of this then what does that say about his knowledge of media?

"Gerald Farinas ‏@GeraldFarinasSo apparently #DNAinfo does broadcast my stuff on its feed. Interesting."
(Of course that is the standard reply, ignorance and denial, he is so famous how would he even know?)

Can't remember how many times this number was called telling the landlord about the gang problem at the corner and the issues with unlocked gates.Thankfully the area has improved to the point where these calls are no longer necessary. Over the years this space has languished, now its actually starting to resemble a vanilla box. This is the site of the long shuttered coin laundromat that shut down long ago. Reside on Morse and the Morse L stop can be seen in the reflection. Hopefully some useful new retail goes in here soon. A lot of empty retail space on Morse.

What is the purpose of the Rogers Park DNAinfo.com Twitter Feed? Is this a place to discuss personal matters? A family member having an illness is a horrible thing to deal with. Is that something that should be tweeted on the same news feed where Rogers Parkers' get their news? Imagine if Joe Moore the Alderman tweeted "Hey my family member is sick with this disease in the hospital". That would be inappropriate. Did this person clear it with the family member about tweeting this private information? Is someone monitoring this feed?

The Twitter feed on DNAinfo.com serves to provide Rogers Park with news alerts from official sources(for the most part, as it should be). Certain individuals have taken it upon themselves to retweet national news. The retweeting of national news however does not make one a public figure or journalist. The line becomes blurred between public and private on Twitter, which is also a place used to hold conversations. Even if the person is a journalist people don't check DNAinfo.com to update themselves on people's private lives. If you click on the picture you will see what Chevanston is talking about.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Applejack posted this picture of a very intense kiss by the Farwell Pier on the now defunct Everyblock. The waves crash as the couple embraces and they finally profess the love they have for each other.

Wasn't sure if this type of hydrant existed. It has been described as the hydrant with the weakest, lowest water pressure and are near the dead end of the water pipes. This hydrant is near Lake Michigan. If you really need to put out a fire just run down to the lake for more water if this hydrant doesn't do the trick. The city of Chicago's pdf won't load forcing this blogger to a quote from a now dead, defunct website.

"Adopt and Paint a Fire Hydrant Program | EveryBlock Chicagohttps://chicago.everyblock.com/.../nov04-adopt-and-paint-fire...ShareNov 4, 2011 – I don't know for sure if Chicago does any color coding for hydrants but I ... Those attached to "dead end" mains or 4" mains have a white flange."

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

These are the bricks that haven't been installed into the Howard Streetscape yet. And it beats Morse's by a mile! The trash cans, signs, and light posts sit on the vacant lot at Howard and Ashland waiting to be installed sometime this February.Broken Heart broke the story on Morse's pile of bricks back on February 4th, but that's nothing compared to all the bricks on Howard.

The internet is a great place for discussion. However some people persist on posting on sites that will quickly disappear or already dead. Its nice to have some continuity. This is filed under general neighborhood discussion. (This is the final wrap up of Everyblock. Its posted here so that the conversation can continue if anyone wants to and so that it won't disappear (because this one will too, its being held on that final E.B. blog post, which at press time had 1141 comments. Also this was near the bottom of those comments so likely not a lot people have read this. Also looking through that "final blog post" the comment section is a complete mess. People are using various comments as though they were posts as before & you have to keep loading the page for 20-30 more comments. The discussion contains most of the chronic infamous posters.)

Loyola Student Dispatch is starting to look better already. The format looks better and a lot of the borrowed photos are gone and those left have photo credits. Constructive criticism is a good thing, Chevanston had a run in with copyright infringement and researched the heck out of it and overhauled the site afterwards. It was a lot of work but also fun and its still not done yet. The newest article from the Loyola Student Dispatch is original news pertaining to Loyola. Best to leave the retweeting of news to average citizens, an odd practice, but better than a University run site doing it.

"I think a sticker will look just smashing right there darling!"
"Right you are funny old chap."

These pictures are from 2-11-13. Found some birds resting on the north side of the breakwaters and using it as windbreak. Was too treacherous to walk all the way out to the pier due to the melting ice. It wasn't that cold out this past Sunday but you definitely felt it at the lakefront.

You are not supposed to bring dogs into this Loyola Beach Dune area because you would then scare off the birds. Reading through the priority mail sticker we see that volunteer days for working on the Loyola Dunes are on the fourth Saturday of every month in April, May, June, July, August, September and October. The meeting times are 930 to 1230 am. Volunteers meet at the west end of the pier just north and east of Pratt boulevard.

For more picture of the pier, icy water and birds please continue reading.

Monday, February 11, 2013

In general Chevanston isn't sure of the point of certain twitter feeds. All it is are people retweeting news which the news organizations could be tweeting themselves.

Editors Note 1:20 pm - John Versical brings up a good point, this is a question more than anything about the usage of photos than an official accusation of copyright infringement. What is the service that Loyola Student Dispatch provides besides copying and pasting sections of news articles, pictures and then reposting them? Even if they are cleared by the original sources they are only official regurgitators then. They are watering down the news by being middle men. It does look odd however to post a photo that isn't yours without a subtitle giving the provenance. Yes there is a grey line between copyright infringement and fair use?

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Chevanston's photographer was taking photos of the L underpass because its an example of one that still has a working yellow light in the middle. There is also a shopping cart that is always locked at the stop sign at the northeast end. You can see a man standing there right now.